Syria VP says neither side can win war

Syria's Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa told a Lebanese newspaper that neither the forces of President Bashar Assad
nor opposition fighters were able to win the war in Syria.

Sharaa said the situation in the country was heading from bad to worse and that a "historic settlement", involving the formation of a national unity government, was needed to end the conflict, Al-Akhbar newspaper cited him as saying.

Earlier Sunday, the rebels said they seized a Syrian army infantry college near the northern city of Aleppo after five days of fighting with forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

A commander from the Islamist Tawheed Brigade said his men helped take the building on Saturday.

"At least 100 soldiers have been taken prisoners and 150 decided to join us. The soldiers were all hungry because of the siege," he added.

War-torn Damascus (Photo: AFP)

On Saturday, Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Moallem
blamed the Syrian people's suffering on US and European sanctions imposed on his country, telling a top UN official that the international body should condemn these measures and work toward lifting them.

The comment, made during UN
Humanitarian Chief Valerie Amos' visit to the war-torn country, sought to deflect responsibility for the Syrian public's hardships on a wave of sanctions to punish Assad's regime for its crackdown against protesters calling for democratic reforms, a crackdown that evolved into a civil war that has left more than 40,000 dead.

"The sanctions imposed by the United States and countries of the European Union on Syria are responsible for the suffering of the Syrian people," the state-run news agency SANA quoted Moallem as saying.

The measures include a travel ban and freeze on the assets of Assad and other Syrian government leaders, along with an embargo on the oil and arms trades.